Unlikely people to choose as the first evangelists

Shepherds are hardly the quietest people on earth. Up in the hills they had to shout to hear each other over long distances, to draw in wandering sheep, and to scare away wild animals. Not for them, the quiet confines of a library. Now they were in the manger seeing the baby Jesus. Clearly the commotion they raised brought people from the inn to the manger to see what was happening. Luke says, “When they saw the child, they repeated what they had been told about him (by the angels). Everyone who heard the shepherds’ story was amazed” (Luke 2:17-18).

Of course people were amazed! Two thousand years later we are still reading this story with amazement. These shepherds became the first evangelists of the gospel, of the new kingdom that Jesus would bring into being.

As the commercial Christmas crowds around us, how effective can we be as evangelists for this baby who became the Good Shepherd (in John’s gospel, chapter 10)?